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Pamela Roth, Edmonton Sun

Apr 20, 2014

, Last Updated: 11:54 AM ET

EDMONTON -- Sangeeta Khanna’s future looked bright.

Following a bitter divorce in 2002, the 41-year-old mother purchased a new house in south Edmonton where she lived with her only son. She was ecstatic about landing a lucrative $3-million contract with a major energy company for the permit firm she worked for. It would have doubled her $40,000 annual salary.

With close ties to a large, tight-knit family, there was no reason for Khanna to up and leave. So when she disappeared on April 17, 2006, those who knew her suspected something was terribly wrong.

Khanna left her Ellerslie Crossing home earlier that night to do some banking at the Mill Woods Town Centre. When her dad called her cellphone around 9 p.m., he was told she was just leaving her house to drive to the bank. Two hours later, Khanna placed a chilling phone call to her 15-year-old son Kuran, telling him to go to bed since she would be home in five minutes.

Kuran sensed from the nervous tone in his mother’s voice that something was wrong. He decided to wait up, but eventually fell asleep. When he woke up later she still wasn’t home.

Scared and worried, Kuran went to school and told a friend what had happened. His friend’s mom called police, who later found Khanna’s abandoned blue 2005 Suzuki Grand Vitara in the parking lot of the Royal Bank near 23 Avenue and 66 Street in Mill Woods.

There were no signs of a struggle or foul play in or around the vehicle and no activity had been recorded on her bank account that night. Police don’t believe she ever made it into the building.

Former Edmonton police homicide detective Ernie Schreiber was the primary investigator on the case. Based on information from the initial officers, he immediately suspected foul play.

A past boyfriend of Khanna’s set off alarm bells when questioned about what he had done the previous night. The married man, who Schreiber refers to only as Anthony since he’s never been identified, claimed to be at a casino then came home and slept downstairs. But the man’s wife told police he was lying, that he never came home that night. Anthony and his wife only stayed together so the family wouldn’t fall apart. Schreiber believes Anthony and Khanna had an affair for about a year before she broke it off.